Shoeshine (1946)

 Vittorio De Sica's "Shoeshine"

There is something Vittorio De Sica is able to do with his films that no other director can seem to do. For one thing, he certainly knows how to pull at the heartstrings and make your heart break in a final climatic moment. He builds relationships, complex stories, and emotional identification and twists it until the final pull is something utterly tragic. Another thing he is able to do is present reality as bare-boned as possible. Of course, his work in the Italian neo-realist landscape provided a lot of the bare-boned nature of his work. However, even so, it is no small feat that his films connect us to something pure and resonant and the film screen disappears behind the reality of life. The same can be said for his very first masterpiece, 1946's "Shoeshine." 

The film follows two young impoverished boys who are trying to buy themselves a horse. After getting involved with one of the boy's criminal brother and his scheme to rob a fortune teller, the boys are arrested and taken to a juvenile prison. There, the boys' friendship becomes strained as they are pulled apart by various circumstances that provoke them. As their friendship unwinds, tragedy strikes.

For one thing, the film centers on two children. This already turns the emotional stakes of the film up as high as they can go. It is difficult to watch what these children, as well as the other children in the juvenile facility, go through. This unflinching view of how poverty and crime affect the lives of all these children portrays an Italy in a troubling state. The unsympathetic way in which the adults handle these children is abhorrent and cold. It points to the reactionary authoritarianism in post-war Italy and the imminent need to take control over the rising crime rates and poverty levels. If children begin their lives in this oppressive state trying to control chaos, the future looks pretty bleak. 

While watching, I noticed that the film could also be analogous to the authoritarian fascism Italy had just emerged from. Benito Mussolini had dictated over Italy for the past 20 years and was finally deposed in death in 1945. Although the film isn't literally about this fascist regime, it is analogous all the same and communicates the intensity and emotional affect of such a condition. The boys being confined to their cells, made to compete against each other over fear of consequence, and the harsh conditions and oppression put upon them all creates this environment that is symmetrical to the experiences of Italy during the Mussolini reign. Perhaps it is a demonstration of that time or perhaps it is an examination of how those authoritarian and fascist structures are still left over after the collapse of the regime. Either way, the intensity of the oppression can be felt in the film by the viewer, especially since this oppression is against literal children. De Sica does a phenomenal job in demonstrating the affects of this oppression. You can see the physicality and emotional state of our two protagonists as they go from youthful, spirited, and hopeful young boys to eventually hardened, shaved, and callous grown-men-looking boys. Perhaps this representation of these kids points to the hardened state of Italian society in 1946 as many were bitter and acclimated to the harshness of poverty, oppression, and a state of brutality amongst competing citizens.

Overall, this film is a bleak affair, full of betrayal, violence, and tragedy. Our two youthful protagonists enter a world of pain and suffering and never come out of it. Their original 'crime' did not justify this suffering and did not warrant such oppression. It is difficult to watch a child suffer and become a broken, bitter person. It is difficult to face the reality of poverty-stricken children. It is difficult to watch the grinding of the spirit in a post-war Italy. It is difficult to watch such a masterpiece like "Shoeshine." But this is what makes it so important and fundamental to Italian neo-realism and to cinema itself.